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Some Guidance From Microsoft

Microsoft likes to be known as being helpful; so do its public relations people.

But a number of reporters were surprised last week when the company helpfully went so far as to take the unusual step of recommending three pages of specific questions that they should ask of Richard M. Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation, after a speech at New York University.

''We encourage you as journalists to take a moment prior to the speech to read through these questions,'' the company's e-mail message said. The questions suggested that the General Public License, or G.P.L., which underlies much of the movement Mr. Stallman represents, is vague and conflicts with the workings of mainstream business.

''Does the all-or-nothing viral approach of the G.P.L. severely limit business flexibility?'' one of the questions asked. The e-mail message also referred journalists to a page on Microsoft's Web site that critiques the free-software and open-source movements.

The Microsoft gesture was part of a campaign by the company to take on the free-software and open-source movements, which have produced free products like the GNU-Linux operating system that competes with Microsoft's offerings. Supporters of these efforts develop their software collaboratively and leave the underlying source code of the programs in the open for all to see and improve.

This is the second time that Microsoft has offered questions to journalists in the course of trying to shape public debate. In February, the company also circulated a list of 15 pointed questions about the Sun ONE initiative from Sun Microsystems, which resembles Microsoft's competing .Net strategy.

A Microsoft spokesman said the company, in both cases, was simply trying to help journalists understand the issues.

''We felt it was important to have a very open, very honest debate on this very important subject,'' said Rick Miller, a spokesman for Microsoft. Mr. Miller said Microsoft made the questions available to Mr. Stallman before his speech and that the questions were offered merely as suggestions. ''We were just trying to further the debate,'' he said. JOHN SCHWARTZ